In 1991, in response to the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea, a tripartite Consultative Committee on Safety in the Offshore Petroleum Industry, recommended that key outcomes of the United Kingdom Committee of Inquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster chaired by Lord Cullen be implemented in Australia, and in particular that:
- a safety case regime be adopted in Australia
- performance-based regulations replace prescriptive safety rules in the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967.
The Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967
(PSLA) was amended in 1992 to establish legislation and regulations to require the preparation and submission of a safety case for every offshore petroleum facility, underpinned by provisions for penalties and enforcement measures to ensure compliance. These regulations are the:
- Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Occupational Health and Safety) Regulations 1993
- Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Management of Safety on Offshore Facilities) Regulations 1996
- Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Pipelines) Regulations 2001
- Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Diving Safety) Regulations 2002
- Offshore Petroleum (Safety Levies) Regulations 2004.
The offshore petroleum industry safety regulations are supported by mirror legislation in the relevant State/Northern Territory and coexist with regulation by other agencies. The legislation and regulations are administered by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA), established on 1 January 2005.
Offshore Petroleum Regulatory Inquiry
On 9 January 2009 the Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments announced a joint independent Inquiry into the effectiveness of regulation for upstream petroleum operations. The terms of reference included a focus on the 3 June 2008 gas pipeline rupture at the Apache Energy Ltd operated facilities on Varanus Island.
The Terms of Reference for the Inquiry were altered following action by Apache Energy Ltd in the Federal Court challenging the Panel’s use of documents provided by the Western Australian Department that had been compulsorily obtained under section 63 of the Western Australian Petroleum Pipelines Act 1969. The Varanus Island incident is being addressed in a separate WA investigation.
The final reports on the offshore petroleum safety regulatory regime were released at the 9th Meeting of the Ministerial Council on Mineral and Petroleum Resources (MCMPR) in Darwin on 9 July 2009 by the Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP.
Better Practice and the Effectiveness of NOPSA [PDF, 3MB] and Marine Issues [PDF, 1MB] investigate the role of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA), and the regulatory interface between NOPSA and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
The Inquiry was conducted by an expert panel comprising Mr Kym Bills, then Executive Director of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, and Mr David Agostini, an oil and gas industry consultant, formerly of Woodside Petroleum.
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